Dakota Gasification Company

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From their brochure, "The Great Plains Synfuels Plant is the only commercial-scale coal gasification plant in the United State that manufactures natural gas.  This plant, originally costing $2.1 billion, begin operating in 1984.  Using the Lurgi process, the Synfuels Plant gasifies lignite coal to produce valuable gases and liquids.  The plant is capable of producing 170 million cubic feet of natural gas, which is sent through the Northern Border Pipeline to market."  We took the tour on which we watched a video and walked around the $8 million model of the plant while different operations were discussed.  You can see the video on YouTube using these search parameters, "Dakota Gasification Company tour show".   It's an interesting video.

In the foreground is the gasification plant with Antelope Valley Station, a lignite-based electric generating station, just to the north.  "The two plants share resources such as coal supply, site access, along with water supply, delivery and storage facilities."

The two huge storage units are for anhydrous ammonia.

They have several places where the trucks can park to load anhydrous.

The rail line has multiple spurs.

Through all it's different processes the plant can produce natural gas, anhydrous ammonia, ammonium sulfate, crude cresylic acid, phenol, krypton-xenon, liquid nitrogen, carbon dioxide, naphtha and tar oil.  They will soon be producing urea.  Watch the YouTube video to see the uses for each of these products.

The white building in the background is the coal-handling building to which coal is trucked.  The coal is sorted with the particles too small for gasification sent to the Antelope Valley electric generating plant.

Did you wonder how we got high enough to take the first couple of photos of the plant?  Well we went up to the overlook.  Not the greatest road in the world.

They had a dragline bucket on the hill.

I could have actually driven up into it!

One of the little trucks delivering coal to the plants.



This was the bridge the "little" trucks used to get from the coal mine to the plants.
 



A dragline at work.